The All Progressive Congress governorship candidate for Abia State, Ikechi Emenike, has pledged to grant autonomy to local governments if elected governor. He emphasized that rural Local Government Areas must be developed to encourage small‑scale businesses and boost internally generated revenue for the state. Speaking from his country home in Umuahia on Sunday, Emenike asserted that his administration’s budget would lift Abia above the poverty line. “You don’t have to be a journalist to know that all is not well in Abia. Abia can change, and we must change it. Our mission is simple: to rescue and develop Abia. We must rescue Abia first before developing it. It’s written in the vision we have for the state,” he said.
Emenike’s vision draws inspiration from Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s remarks on television during his seventieth birthday, where Azikiwe lamented the unfulfilled promise of a great Nigeria. “I was among the young men who thought that if that generation failed to develop, my generation would,” Emenike recalled. “Sadly, Nigeria’s condition today is even worse. There seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel of underdevelopment. That is unfortunate.” Consequently, he declared, “My vision is to lead the charge to build a first‑world state in a third‑world country. We have to do things differently and learn from other developed countries in how they handle contracts to ensure the development of the state.”
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